The Effectiveness of Skin Temperature Biofeedback with versus without Cue-Controlled Training (open access)

The Effectiveness of Skin Temperature Biofeedback with versus without Cue-Controlled Training

This study compared biofeedback assisted cue-controlled skin temperature training with skin temperature biofeedback training in subjects attempting to raise the digital skin temperature of their dominant hand. In addition to classification according to training, the subjects were also divided into two diagnostic groups. One group was composed of subjects with cold hands and Raynaud's disease while the other group consisted of nonRaynaud's disease cold handed subjects. The treatment and diagnostic groups were compared along the dimensions of amount of posttreatment digital skin temperature change and degree of generalization of digital skin temperature control to a cold room challenge task.
Date: August 1981
Creator: Goldman, Mark Paul
System: The UNT Digital Library
Influence of Caffeine on EMG, Self-Rating, and Behavioral Observation Indices of Progressive Relaxation Training (open access)

Influence of Caffeine on EMG, Self-Rating, and Behavioral Observation Indices of Progressive Relaxation Training

This study was designed to investigate the inhibiting effect that caffeine may have in inducing deeper states of relaxation. The degree of relaxation was assessed by physiological measures, self-ratings, and behavioral observations of relaxation behavior.
Date: August 1981
Creator: Floyd, William T.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Police Attitudes Toward Rape (open access)

Police Attitudes Toward Rape

Research has demonstrated that the general public accepts many rape myths and that rape attitudes are strongly connected to other deeply held and pervasive attitudes. However, it has not been clear whether police officers reflected similar attitudes. This research attempted to ascertain if police share the same antecedents of rape myth acceptance as the general public. Using officers from two police departments, it was demonstrated that attidudes regarding sex role stereotyping, sexual conservatism, acceptance of interpersonal violence, and adversarial sexual beliefs were significantly correlated with acceptance of rape myths. However, police were more pro-victim (p < .01) in their attitudes as compared to the general public. Officers who received specialized rape-related training were not significantly different in rape attitudes from those officers who had not received training.
Date: August 1981
Creator: Best, Connie Lee
System: The UNT Digital Library
Development of a Machine Transcription Work Sample Test for Secretarial Selection (open access)

Development of a Machine Transcription Work Sample Test for Secretarial Selection

The study described the development of a standardized, normed, content-valid machine transcription test which could be used to evaluate the ability of secretarial applicants to type a mailable copy of a business letter from a dictated tape recording. The test was based on a thorough job analysis and was pretested using a pilot study with job incumbents to confirm its feasibility. Normative data were developed from 50 job applicants. Interrater reliability was statistically significant (r = .85, p <..05). The test was adopted for use at the headquarters office of a major oil and gas producing company.
Date: August 1981
Creator: Kaye, Deborah Frances
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effects of Interviewer's Impersonal and Personal Self-Disclosures on Somatic Symptom Verbalizations of Psychiatric Outpatients (open access)

Effects of Interviewer's Impersonal and Personal Self-Disclosures on Somatic Symptom Verbalizations of Psychiatric Outpatients

A literature review indicated that psychopathological symptomology must be considered within the social context of the patient. Recent research has suggested that the psychopathological symptoms of the psychotic patient function on a covert level of communication as a strategy to control the threat of interpersonal intimacy. The present investigation similarly examined the interpersonal function of another class of patient symptomology, somatic symptoms. It was hypothesized that somatic symptom verbalizations of psychiatric outpatients also can serve as covert messages to avoid the risk of interpersonal intimacy. Results indicated that only the high-somatic-symptom patients significantly increased their symptom verbalizations in response to demand. When the interviewer modeled impersonal self-disclosures, both groups showed a low rate of somatic verbalizations. The groups did not differ. When the interviewer modeled personal self-disclosures, both patient groups significantly increased their psychological symptom verbalizations compared to their counterparts in the impersonal condition. In addition, low somatic symptom patients under the demand for personal disclosure showed significantly less avoidance behavior than any other group. No differences were found among the experimental groups in terms of self-disclosure level. The results clearly lend support to Haley's (1963) intimacy-avoidance corollary; that is, symptoms of non-psychotic patients function as covert messages that avoid …
Date: August 1981
Creator: Skenderian, Daniel
System: The UNT Digital Library
Development and Evaluation of a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale as a Measure of Secretarial and Clerical Performance (open access)

Development and Evaluation of a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale as a Measure of Secretarial and Clerical Performance

Empirical findings on Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) have been mixed, despite early researchers' claims that BARS were superior to trait ratings and in reliability and resistance to leniency, central tendency, and halo. The study presented compared a BARS format to an independently derived trait scale as measures of secretarial and clerical performance. Though the BARS showed slightly inflated mean ratings, the instruments showed nearly identical variability. Neither demonstrated sufficient resistance to halo. Thus, despite their intuitive appeal and the rigors involved in format development, it did not appear in this instance that BARS were an efficient and psychometrically superior alternative to the traditional trait rating format.
Date: August 1981
Creator: O'Connor, Suzan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Concurrent Validation of the Computer Programmer Aptitude Battery (open access)

Concurrent Validation of the Computer Programmer Aptitude Battery

Subjects were 34 computer programmers employed in a major computerized tax processing company. Scores in the Computer Programmer Aptitude Battery (CPAB) and ratings of each programmer's job performance by his immediate supervisor were obtained. The purpose of the study was to validate a selection test. The relationship between the aptitude battery and performance evaluations was examined to evaluate the test's ability in predicting programming performance. Statistical treatment of data included Pearson product-moment correlations and a multiple linear regression analysis. The total test scores and several of the subtests were found to be significantly correlated with performance.
Date: August 1981
Creator: Edwards, Dorsey W. (Dorsey Williams)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Factor Analysis of an Employee Attitude Survey (open access)

Factor Analysis of an Employee Attitude Survey

A 75-item, Likert-type employee attitude survey was completed by a sample of 670 hourly and salaried employees of a Southwestern company engaged in computerized tax-form processing. The survey contained items relating to attitude dimensions roughly analogous to those subsumed under the two-factor theory of job satisfaction as defined in the relevant literature. Factor analysis, using the principle axes solution, followed by both orthogonal (varimax) and oblique (direct oblimin) rotations was performed. The oblique rotation derived 11 factors which accounted for 87.3% of the common variance. These lent statistical support to 10 of 16 a priori, hypothesized attitudinal dimensions. The six remaining hypothesized dimensions were not empirically supported.
Date: August 1981
Creator: Scivetti, Frank A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Predictive Validation of a Computer Programmer Selection Test (open access)

Predictive Validation of a Computer Programmer Selection Test

Subjects were 32 computer programmers employed in a large computerized tax-processing company in the Southwest. Ratings of each programmer's job performance by his/her immediate supervisor and scores on the Aptitude Test for Programmer Personnel (ATPP) were obtained. Relationships between test scores and criteria were examined to identify significant (p < .05) correlations. Statistical treatment of data included zero-order Pearson product-moment correlation, multiple linear regression, and first-order semi-partial correlation analyses. Results indicated that the ATPP did not successfully predict (2 >.05) the rated performance of the programmers.
Date: August 1981
Creator: Duvall, Sherman K.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Congruence Effects Treatment Technique-Outcome Measure Interaction (open access)

Congruence Effects Treatment Technique-Outcome Measure Interaction

It was hypothesized that effect size in therapy outcome research would correlate positively with congruence effects. Congruence was defined as the degree to which what had been practiced in treatment was scored as improvement when outcome was measured. Additionally, it was hypothesized that correcting effect sizes for estimated nongeneralizable change attributable to congruence (i.e., representativeness reduction) would significantly reduce the average magnitude of effect.
Date: August 1981
Creator: Jacobs, John A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cognitive Complexity, Perspective Taking, and Moral Reasoning in Depression (open access)

Cognitive Complexity, Perspective Taking, and Moral Reasoning in Depression

The relationships of cognitive complexity, social perspective taking, and moral reasoning have been primarily examined in children or juveniles. Little work has been done to study their relationships in the late adolescent and young adult college student population. Additionally, the research to date has only examined relationships among pairs of these constructs. There has been no attempt to assess the combined relationship of cognitive complexity and role-taking skills to moral reasoning at any developmental level. Therefore, there are two purposes in this study. First, to test the theory of ego function regression in depression on cognitive developmental concepts related to interpersonal functioning. Second, the study will determine the individual as well as combined relationships of cognitive complexity and social perspective taking to moral judgment in a late adolescent to young adult college student population.
Date: August 1981
Creator: Jackson, Daniel Wayne
System: The UNT Digital Library